Every farm has a gnome, or at least they should. You give them porridge and treat them right and they take care of the farm for you. And if you’re pregnant and a troll wants to put a changeling in your home and take your baby, then the gnome will take care of it as well. This is just what you have to do in Midwinter!
Category: Gaming
Videogame & Tabletop
Review: Corpse Party
You’re in a dilapidated school with one of your friends. There are bones and corpses everywhere, and something in the shadows hunting after you. No, it’s not Shia Labeouf, it’s a bunch of scary Japanese ghosts. This is turning into a Corpse Party.
Top 10 Bosses in Dark Souls and Bloodborne!
I recently finished Dark Souls III, clearing almost all bosses—with the exception of the Nameless King and Ancient Wyvern because I couldn’t care enough to track them down—and since finishing it, I’ve been thinking of the From Software games catalogue, figuring out what the best bosses are. Admittedly, I haven’t played Demons’ Souls so whatever list I come up with is incomplete.
But still, this is my list of the best bosses in the Dark Souls and Bloodborne series. These ranking take two major things into consideration: challenge and memorability, because if we’re truly honest, in Souls games and Bloodborne what we remember the most are the boss fights. The lore is great but boss fights are what people talk about, they’re the highlights and low points of any of their games.
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10 – Asylum Demon: The first Dark Souls boss is a surprise to say the least. The game teaches you the basics of gameplay inside the walls of the Undead Asylum, and even introduces you to a friendly NPC that gives you your first Estus Flasks. Then you open some doors, go inside and boom, there he is in all his fleshy glory. He’s a vicious enemy that is very easy once you figure him out, but a fantastic start to the game.
9 – Gwyn, Lord of Fire: Gwyn’s an easy boss fight, too easy for Dark Souls to be honest, but he’s still memorable for me because his boss design reflects the overall game theme and lore. In his prime, Gwyn was a powerhouse, but now, faded and hollowed and dying like his first flame, he’s so weak you can even parry him. He’s on his last legs, he’s “fading embers” made flesh.
8 – Soul of Cinder: The final boss in Dark Souls III is yet another callback to Dark Souls bosses, though in this case he’s also a reference to Dark Souls players, taking the appearance of a charred version of the poster-character from Dark Souls and using sorceries, pyromancy and even using Dark Wood Grain Ring-style movements. He’s fairly simple to kill and he’s yet another dude in armour with melee weapon at that point. But he’s the one reference in Dark Souls III I didn’t mind. You can even parry him in second phase, though I found it easier to just bait him.
7 – Queelag: Who can forget this beautiful thing? She has the body of a flaming spider and torso of a gorgeous naked girl. Queelag is the first boss in Dark Souls that forces you to react to several things at ones. The spider half has some attacks while the human does other things and there are also environmental dangers. Add to this that you might have gotten there battered and poisoned and you’ll see why she’s on the list. Also, her boss soul weapon was my favourite in all of Dark Souls and I never found anything like it in any of the sequels.
6 – Blood-Starved Beast: This howling monstrosity comes early—or late—in Bloodborne’s story, particularly because it’s entirely optional, only needed to unlock chalice dungeons. But if you do fight it, it’s a fight that punishingly teaches you how to wait for an opening and to create one if you need. The Blood-Starved beast is highly agile but then starts adding a vicious poison to its attack and by the end, it’s covered in the stuff, making the last 30% of its health a real race for survival.
5 – Abyss Watchers: This is my favourite boss fight in Dark Souls 3, particularly since it’s partially a rehash from the number 1 on this list. What makes it very cool is that when you first see the Abyss Watchers you think, “Oh no, not another council fight.” Council fights being those where you fight two or more enemies where killing one triggers more skills in the other(s). But no, you fight one major guy and the others come in and can even help you, as the Abyss Watchers tend to fight among each other. Phase two is strong, intense and gave me a powerful rush of endorphins when I nailed it!
4 – Orphan of Kos: Screw this guy, really. The boss most responsible for rage-quits in Bloodborne. The Orphan of Kos is the hardest boss in the game, but he’s not really a fun one, particularly because he’s extremely punishing and random. He doesn’t feel challenging like other fights, where you can figure out the flaws in your strategy, but instead you depend a lot on luck with him.
3 – The Fume Knight: Oh how I hated this guy in Dark Souls 2. He’s the toughest boss in the entire game and is so because he’s absolutely vicious. His first phase is manageable if you’re not very good at rolling, but the second one makes blocking impossible. It’s high on this list because it forced me to switch up my play style to match the boss encounter, instead of using my go-to turtling strategy.
2 – Ornstein and Smough: The Bash Bros of Dark Souls, Ornstein and Smough are the most memorable bosses in the entire Souls series, and a nice council fight. You can’t just focus on one of them, as they don’t ever stop attacking. And then when you’ve taken one of them out and you’re happy, then one powers the other for the doubly intense phase two. I remember shouting, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” Like a Daniel Bryan fan when I finally felled them!
1 – Lady Maria of the Astral Clock Tower: Hunter fights are the best in Bloodborne. They use the same rules as you do and it’s the closest PVE gets to PVP, which suits me just fine. Lady Maria also has some nice references in lore and her introduction video is awesome. But most importantly her fight is the fun kind of challenging. Her moves remain the same throughout the fight with just changes in how punishing they are. You can learn to overcome your mistakes and finally put her to rest. She is the best-designed and paced boss in all From Software’s games.
So, there’s my list. Do you agree? Or is there one I should’ve included and why the hell didn’t I? Let me know in the comments.
I hope we get a Demons’ Souls remaster at some point on PC or current or next gen consoles, as I really want to play all games in the Souls series.
Dark Souls III – Identity Crisis?
I recently finished Dark Souls III. So where’s the review? Well, there’s not gonna be one. I realised my last article on the game summed up my feelings on it quite well. Dark Souls, beyond its lore, is very much a game that hinges on the memorability of its boss battles, on the design of these. It’s what we all remember after playing the game (that and some of the more annoying enemies and the beautiful landscapes), so my feelings on the rather samey boss design should tell you a lot. If you need a score, I give Dark Souls III a 3.5, it’s a good game but not as good as its predecessor. It has a lot more variety in NPCs, weapons and armour compared to Bloodborne for example, and the quality of the character stories are much more interesting, but it lacks something important. Continue reading Dark Souls III – Identity Crisis?
Preview: Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
One of the first lessons you learn in the Lovecraftian Mythos is stay the hell away from magic, even more so from the Necronomicon. No one told this to Buzz and his acquaintance, who’s now in the hands of some crazy cultists. To make things worse, or funnier, Buzz’s cat got hit with a random spell and started talking, or as he puts it “became a horrible abomination.”
Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure, a point & click adventure game in development and currently on Kickstarter has one thing going for it that I found even funnier than the rest of the demo: the game’s studio, Stuck in Attic, is from Transylvania. With how much we tie Transylvania to horror thanks to Bram Stoker’s novel—my favourite by the way—the fact these guys are making a comedy-horror just cracks me up. Just me that finds it funny? Let’s move along then. Continue reading Preview: Gibbous: A Cthulhu Adventure
Review: Goetia
Imagine you died and then suddenly came back a disembodied spirit. Nothing is as you remember it and your family, or what’s left of it, seems to have vanished. Poor Abigail finds herself in this situation, exploring the haunted Blackwood Manor now possessed by Goetia demons.
Review: The Banner Saga 2
The Sundr is down, Bellower defeated and with him, a loved one lost. The apocalypse still rages on, the serpent devouring everything in its path. You must only take your clansmen, your varl and your warriors to Aberrang for safety. It’s the next chapter in the story of the Banner Saga. Continue reading Review: The Banner Saga 2
Review: Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim
A Father tells his son a bedtime story, about a boy, who sets out on a perilous journey to save his father and the rest of his Viking village’s warriors. This is story is Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim. Continue reading Review: Cornerstone: The Song of Tyrim
Preview: Perpetual Night
I played Perpetual Night during Rezzed 2016 and I gave you a little preview of how it plays. After the event, I received a demo build of the game thanks to the awesome people at Studio Genkan.
Before I begin: Perpetual Night is still on Kickstarter and at the time of publishing this article, there are four days left in the campaign and still a long way to go, so if you like what you see and you’re intrigued enough to help make this a reality, then please head on to campaign page and back this project! Continue reading Preview: Perpetual Night
Overwatch Beta – Ninja is my calling!
I’m not one for multiplayer in shooters. I don’t like Call of Duty multiplayer or even Team Fortress 2. I dabble once in a while, particularly because Timlah is extremely convincing—read “annoying until you give in”—and gets me to play Killing Floor.
But this is really not my type of game…until I played Overwatch. That one I dig, a lot! I played the first beta weekend months ago and this weekend I played another one and I just couldn’t stop. But things were different in my play style this time.
When I first played this weird quirky game of heroes shooting it out, I went for the tanks, the big burly guys that can take a beating, give it as good as they can take it and can keep others alive by being meat shields. I loved playing with Reinhardt and enjoyed the playstyle with D-Va. But in the end, I settled comfortably with Zarya and her pulse rifle and gravity abilities. I really enjoyed the playstyle with her. I did break out Hanzo, Reaper and Tracer once in a while to try something different, but tanking was my thing—which is very odd because in World of Warcraft, while I have enjoyed tanking, DPS is what I do best.
But this time around, it wasn’t tanking for me but full on DPS. In fact, I started the other way around, going for Zarya and Reinhardt first and just not feeling it. I switched to Hanzo, McCree and Reaper before finding my match with Genji, the Gray Fox-esque ninja. His main weapon are shuriken, he has a forward dash that deals damage, can deflect bullets, climb walls and his ultimate is pulling out the Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword. There are so many hidden references—in my head at least—for this character that I couldn’t pass him up.
I checked the difficulty for him, and it said 3-stars, meaning highly difficult character to play and master. I’m in no way a pro at anything but you know what? I’ve found the groove with this dude. The first few matches where horrendous, and I kept getting killed the moment I showed up. The shuriken don’t deal much damage compared to other characters, but they’re really fast. If you’ve played Overwatch, it’s kinda like Tracer’s guns, not that damaging but very fast.
But as I kept playing and dying I started finding the rhythm for the character—that is very fast and opportunistic. Genji’s a ninja and the best way to use him is as an assassin. Throw out your shuriken, whittle away the enemy’s health in the middle of some barrage and when you have them low enough, just start dashing into them. That’s how I started feeling it with the character, and soon I was being bolder, tackling the enemies early on and being very aggressive. I’ve dueled and defeated Tracers, though they’re still my main enemies, their blinking and rewinding abilities kick my ass most of the time, but when I mastered the deflection—or at least learned to use it properly—I could take them on without much issue. Reaper and Lúcio are my weakness right now, as their ultimate abilities are just too much for me. But I have taken out some players using Lúcio quite easily in the past.
My highest kill spree has been 9 consecutive kills, not the best in any way, and quite tame when it comes to this game, but I was jumping in my seat. Hell, when I had the best play of the match I was cheering, a double kill on two Soldier: 76 players.
As for the Beta itself, it was good though I had a few matches with unbearable lag, so much so that I dashed ahead with Genji and found myself further back than when I started. I’ve been in laggy games, but that was a new one even for me! Overall I like the characters and the game balance, though Genji’s shuriken could use a teeny improvement. It could either be a teeny bit more damage or faster/no reloads on his shuriken.
I will definitely be picking up Overwatch when it releases, and most definitely on PC—can’t imagine playing this game with crane controls—and if you’re around to play with me, let me know, maybe you can teach me how to do it properly.
But if there’s one thing for sure, is that I’ll be in the shadows, with my shuriken and my sword, like a ninja!